Sammy Hagar wouldn't trade lives with anyone

August 22, 2013|By Allison Stewart, Special to the Tribune

(Randee, HANDOUT)

There's no polite way to say this: Sammy Hagar is rich.

Sure, he was well-compensated for multiple tours of duty in Van Halen, because being in Van Halen is not the sort of thing anyone would do for fun. But he also sold most of his interest in his Cabo Wabo Tequila company for a reported $80 million, has a number of other thriving business concerns, and is just generally crazy rich, the Warren Buffett of classic rock frontmen.

Hagar, 65, is one of a few true examples of a rock star unbound, beholden to no one except for a die-hard fanbase known as the Redheads, and to them only because he chooses to be. He drives expensive cars fast, lives on the ocean and tours and records as he pleases. He is Jimmy Buffett's hard-rock analog, an easy-living Lifestyle Representative, a fulfiller of vicarious fantasies.

His upcoming album, "Sammy Hagar & Friends," boasts a guest list that includes Kid Rock, Taj Mahal, Toby Keith and members of his super side group Chickenfoot. It's his first solo work since his career-recharging 2011 autobiography, "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock," which charted Hagar's rise from poverty to fame, first as a member of '70s band Montrose and as a successful solo artist, then as frontman of Van Halen, with whom he last toured in the early '00s.

"Red" was a rip-roaring score-settler that explored Hagar's possible abduction by aliens and fondness for sex tents (Google this, because we can't tell you), and depicted guitarist Eddie Van Halen as a black-toothed hobo with whom he was frequently at odds. In a recent phone interview, Hagar the amiable talked about his new album, his old bandmates, and the fallout from "Red." Excerpts from that conversation follow:

"The only bad memories were the last tour and the break up. It was never about the recording of the songs. The songs always leave me with a good feeling ... When I'm singing it, I'm remembering where (I was) in my life. It's almost like a spiritual experience...The bad memories are about after a show, when you get in a big fight backstage. Those are the bad memories. Not the song.

On his new cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus":

"I always liked that song. It's a very heavy riff. Depeche Mode did it on a synthesizer, and it was the most rocking thing that they did ... The only thing I changed was, I took the semi-darkness out of it and tried to make it more gospel, and true to the words about unconditional love. You start singing about Jesus in a song, it's got a heavy vibe to start with. I'm not a born-again Christian, but it feels powerful.

Kid Rock reminds him of himself:

"He comes from that school of aggressive, outgoing (rocker dudes). I think the guy is one of the most talented young dudes out there. He ain't that young, but compared to me he is. When I asked him to sing on this, he said, "absolutely." And when he sent (the track) back, I was like, I don't even hear him. He sounds just like me."

On whether he hears the word "no" a lot:

"No, I don't (laughs). Not really. Well, from my kids. 'Would someone go get me a drink of water?' 'No.' I don't think they know that we're rich or poor. They know that they want things, and sometimes they can have them and sometimes they can't.

It's as awesome as you think it is. All of it.

"I wouldn't change it for nothing. Everything that happened, including the breakup of the band, that was so important for who I am and what I'm doing today. All the great things I've had happen to me ... I would never have been able to do if I was in Van Halen. So the breakup was one of the greatest things to ever happen to me in retrospect, but at the time it was devastating.

On the fallout from his bridge-burning autobiography:

"I don't think anybody's mad at me. The guys in Van Halen, maybe they were bummed that I told the story, but I told the truth. Everything I said in there really happened, and they know it. It isn't like they're sitting there saying, 'He's lying.' If you're gonna write an autobiography, you have one shot at it. You tell everything. Otherwise, don't do it."

He wrote "Red" partly so people would stop asking him when the band was getting back together:

"Every day of my life, I'm so tired of people saying, 'Why can't you and Eddie get back together? Why don't you go back to Van Halen?' Those people really don't understand. They think that everything's cool, and I just don't want to do it. I felt that was the most important part of (writing the book): Here's why I'm not in Van Halen anymore. Now do you get it?

The band is not getting back together:

"I just don't see that in the cards. I don't see room for it right now. I'd rather do a Chickenfoot reunion. The whole Van Halen machine would be all about money, and I kind of don't do things for that reason. If there was some lovefest going on between us, where we all re-found ourselves without any of the luggage and the bullcrap that we ended up with, I'd consider in a second playing with those guys. But it would have to completely be for the right reasons, and I just don't see that happening."